Giants offense vs. Packers defense: Scouting report

Giants offense vs. Packers defense: Scouting report

The Green Bay Packers’ defense isn’t a particularly heralded unit. Outside of Clay Matthews, there are no name-brand stars (no, 36-year old Julius Peppers doesn’t count), but quietly, this defense has played well since last season and it currently ranks 10th in DVOA.

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Much of this is from their run defense, which ranks second in DVOA thanks in large part to Mike Daniels, seen here eating Travis Swanson alive.

The rest of the Detroit Lions’ line is facing right before the ball is handed off, but Swanson never even fully turns his head because Daniels is in such control. This is commonplace with Daniels, who ranks fourth among defensive linemen with an 84.9 PFF grade and, given the New York Giants’ struggles in running the ball, it’s unlikely their ground game gets much traction on Sunday.

Green Bay has been decidedly more vulnerable in the passing game — they rank 22nd in pass defense DVOA — and it isn’t all too hard to poke holes in the zone coverage they play often.

Remember two weeks ago when Marvin Jones randomly showed up to destroy your fantasy team? Plays like this were a big reason why. The Packers are in man coverage with a safety over the top on the left side of the field, but on the right it’s a zone. Damarious Randall tries to pass off Jones to the safety, Ha Ha Clinton-Dix, but Jones easily slips out to the sideline without anyone in his vicinity.

Once again, Randall passes off the receiver too early. Both he and Jake Ryan move toward Eric Ebron in the flat, giving Jones all the space he needs down the sideline. He doesn’t even need a good throw from Matthew Stafford to make the catch and Stafford doesn’t even need to look to the other side of the field.

Randall is once again at fault here. Initially, it looks like he’s in press coverage, but if that was the playcall then it utterly failed. More likely is that Randall made the same mistake as the last two plays: passing off the receiver to nobody.

Though the Packers have struggled in coverage as a whole, they have especially struggled on throws deep and to the right. In that area, they have a 203.0 percent DVOA while simply on the right, their DVOA is a more acceptable level of bad — 13.1 percent. Randall — the culprit on the previous three clips — has a 40.1 PFF grade and will be forced to cover either Odell Beckham Jr., Victor Cruz or Sterling Shepard on Sunday night.

Don’t mistake the Packers as incapable in coverage though. Dom Capers is a smart coordinator and for every mishap, there’s a brilliantly designed coverage like this.

Green Bay lines up in nickel and before the snap, they show single-high safety with Ha Ha Clinton-Dix at the line of scrimmage across from tight end Eric Ebron, indicating either a blitz or man coverage. Just before the snap however, they roll their coverage and Clinton-Dix runs upfield. Suddenly, the Packers are in Cover-3 and Matthew Stafford has nowhere to throw the football. They shut down everything underneath and get pressure before Stafford can find anyone downfield. Now, Stafford is forced to roll right and throw on the run, something that, as you can tell from this clip, he does not do quite as well as Aaron Rodgers.